Magic Circle of Winner Candidates
Haik Aramyan
14:03 23/02/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:
It happened so that Armenia has three presidents and five `winner’
candidates. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was all the three: a president elect,
a non-elected president, a winning candidate. It also happened so that
the society never knew how many votes each of them received in the
presidential elections. Nobody believed official results and did not
have an idea of how many votes the `winner’ candidate received.
Now there is a similar situation. The CEC has published numbers which
nobody trusts but it is not known how many votes Raffi Hovannisian has
received who thinks he has won. Interestingly, nobody is interested in
the numbers. The destruction of electoral mechanisms and fraud at the
heart of every sphere of life have sent the country into a severe lack
of confidence.
The only president elect so far is Levon Ter-Petrosyan. However, in
1996 he was `reelected’ by way of violence and fraud. The `architect’
of electoral fraud Gagik Jhangiryan and the Armenian Pan-National
Movement held an outrageous parliamentary election, and the minister
of defense Vazgen Sargsyan’s veterans shot at people.
In 1996 Vazgen Manukyan declared himself the winner of the
presidential election 1996. At that time the minister of defense
Vazgen Sargsyan deployed troops in Yerevan and announced that they
would never transfer power even if Vazgen Manukyan had received 100%.
Vano Siradeghyan announced that neither Levon, nor Vazgen won.
Vazgen Manukyan and the demonstrators marched to the National Assembly
where the CEC was located and demanded recount of votes. People
crushed the fence and entered the parliament building. Manukyan’s
supporters were beaten and arrested, Manukyan was a fugitive for a
long time. A `tradition’ was formed then.
Two years later Ter-Petrosyan resigned, and Robert Kocharyan
officially won the presidential election in 1998 with the help of the
army and police, Karen Demirchyan was declared the `winner’ candidate.
The post-electoral developments were not violent because agreement was
reached with Karen Demirchyan not to oppose Kocharyan, and Karen
Demirchyan was swayed locally and from outside, including with the
help of the prospect of deployment of troops in Yerevan.
In 2003 Kocharyan officially won again, and Stepan Demirchyan declared
himself the winner candidate. Rallies, trials, recount of votes
followed which culminated and ended near 26 Baghramyan Street where
Kocharyan clamped down on the demonstrators.
In 2008 Serzh Sargsyan was declared president, and Levon Ter-Petrosyan
was declared winner candidate. The post-electoral developments were
violent and tragic, rallies were held round the clock and more and
more people joined the movement. On 1 March 2008 10 people were
killed. The authorities deployed the army and the police, freedoms
were shortened. Later Ter-Petrosyan continued the rallies which ended
up in a dialogue with Serzh Sargsyan, then PAP, and eventually seven
seats in parliament.
Serzh Sargsyan will be officially recognized the winner of the
presidential election 2013, while his main opponent Raffi Hovannisian
has declared himself the winner candidate and de facto president. He
has already held rallies, demanded recount of votes which was
performed denying access of his representatives and did not produce
any result.
Now it is important to know what way Raffi will follow. He has
considerable advantages over his `predecessors’. First, he can study
their experience which is easy because they all had similar ideas,
methods and mechanisms which did not produce any results. As a result
the government stayed in its place and further crystallized as a
criminal-oligarchic system which is ready for everything to keep its
foothold firm.
The authorities have proved this for many times although Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, for example, hoped that Kocharyan would not shoot.
Hence, all the presumptions that the government may make a compromise
are unreal. Serzh Sargsyan has already refused all the suggestions
Raffi made during their meeting. Besides, Serzh Sargsyan hinted that
in case the opposition uses `anti-constitutional methods’, the answer
will be adequate. By the way, previously the government deployed the
army illegally whereas now the parliament has passed a relevant law.
What has to be done? The previous oppositions held on as much as they
could, waiting for an opportunity to send people home and sending
people into despair. And reported the only result, `We again unmasked
the criminal face of the government.’ So it is necessary to think why
the oppositions have never achieved tangible results. Change of
government, mobilization of people, restoration of constitutional
order declared by the opposition over a decade have never been brought
into being. Why?
Now Raffi has an advantage unlike his predecessors – it is the growth
of the civil society in terms of ideas, wording and methodology.
Recent activities of the civic initiatives point at the prospect of
solution of the main problems of Armenia and real change.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
